The present disclosure relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus that uses an optical disk, a magnetic-optical disk, and other disk-like recording media to perform either recording or reproduction or both of recording and reproduction of an information signal. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus including a recording medium accommodation table including a plurality of recording medium accommodation portions capable of accommodating a plurality of recording media, a recording medium drive unit that performs recording/reproduction on/from a recording medium, and a recording medium transport unit that transports the recording medium between a recording medium accommodation position and a recording medium mounting and removing position. Specifically, in the recording and/or reproducing apparatus, one or two or more recording medium drive units are provided to a mechanical chassis to be movable, and the one or two or more recording medium drive units are configured to be capable of moving closer to and away from the recording medium accommodation table.
In the related art, as a first example of this kind of recording/reproducing apparatus, there is, for example, one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-293919 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 describes a recording/reproducing apparatus capable of easily taking out a desired disk from a turntable accommodating a number of disks at narrow pitches by a loading means. The recording and/or reproducing apparatus according to Patent Document 1 includes a disk-like-recording-medium accommodation means, the loading means, a transport means, a locking means, and a recording and/or reproducing means. In the disk-like-recording-medium accommodation means, a number of disk-like-recording-medium supporting portions having first to n-th addresses are arranged. Those supporting portions support one end portions of the disk-like recording media in a cantilever manner, and the loading means takes out a disk-like recording medium supported by a supporting portion having a desired address among the supporting portions having the first to n-th addresses. The transport means aligns the disk-like recording medium having the desired address and the loading means with each other. The locking means fixes positions of the aligned disk-like-recording-medium accommodation means and loading means. The recording and/or reproducing means performs recording and/or reproduction onto and/or from the loaded disk-like recording medium. The recording and/or reproducing apparatus is characterized by including a disk-like-recording-medium space pressing and widening means that enters between a disk-like recording medium in a desired address and disk-like recording media supported in addresses on both sides thereof and presses and widens a space between the disk-like recording media on the both sides.
According to the recording and/or reproducing apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as “first example of the related art”) that is described in Patent Document 1, even if the space between the disks is narrow, it is possible to press and widen this space by the disk space pressing and widening means and take out a desired disk reliably and easily (paragraph [0058] in Patent Document 1). Further, an information reading portion using an optical pick-up device is provided on an opposite side of the disk accommodation means, and the recording and reproducing means is provided near the disk accommodation means while preventing a chucking clamper from being brought into contact with the disks supported by the disk-supporting portions. Therefore, it is possible to set a disk mounting and removing position at which the clamper mounts and removes the disk to be closer to a disk accommodation position at which the disk is supported by the disk-supporting portion as much as possible. Thus, it is possible to set a transport distance by which the disk is transported by the loading means to be a short distance equal to or smaller than the diameter of a single disk. In this manner, by reducing a time for transporting the disk between the disk accommodation position and the disk mounting and removing position, it is possible to reduce an access time to the disk by the recording and reproducing means.
Further, in the related art, as a second example of this kind of recording and/or reproducing apparatus, there is, for example, one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-085864 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 2). Patent Document 2 describes a disk changer installing a single rotatable tray and two disk-drive devices on a chassis. The disk changer according to Patent Document 2 includes a rotatable tray and a tray rotating mechanism that rotates the rotatable tray. Specifically, the rotatable tray includes a plurality of accommodation portions that are arranged adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction and accommodate disks with main surfaces of the disks being opposed to each other. The rotatable tray is supported by a chassis so as to freely rotate. A plurality of recording and reproducing portions that each perform recording and/or reproduction of an information signal onto and/or from the disk are provided. Further, a plurality of disk take-out mechanisms that each take the disk out from an accommodation portion of the rotatable tray and transport it to a recording and reproducing portion therefor and that each take the disk out from the recording and reproducing portion and transport it to the accommodation portion. The disk changer according to Patent Document 2 is characterized in that the disk that has been transported by each disk take-out mechanism to the recording and reproducing portion is located at a position retreating from the track of the disks accommodated in the accommodation portions, the track being drawn due to the rotation of the rotatable tray.
According to the disk changer described in Patent Document 2 (hereinafter, referred to as “second example of the related art”), the rotatable tray is set to be rotatable during recording or reproduction of an information signal in one recording and reproducing portion. Therefore, effects that recording or reproduction onto or from different disk-like recording media can be performed without interruption and an improvement in convenience in use of the disk changer is achieved are expected.
In the case of the first example of the related art described above, by setting the recording and/or reproducing means to be closer to the disk-like-recording-medium accommodation means as much as possible, the transport distance of the disk is reduced, to thereby achieve an improvement in the access time to the disk. Therefore, in the case where the recording medium accommodation means accommodates a disk, only when the clamper does not hold the disk, the recording medium accommodation means can be driven to rotate. Thus, when the clamper holds the disk, it may be impossible to drive the recording medium accommodation means to rotate. If the recording medium accommodation means is driven to rotate regardless of this, there is a fear that the disk held by the clamper collides with the disks accommodated in the disk accommodation portions. Therefore, it is difficult to sufficiently take advantage that by setting the recording and/or reproducing means to be closer to the disk-like-recording-medium accommodation means as much as possible, the transport distance of the disk is reduced, to thereby achieve an improvement in the access time to the disk.
Further, in the case of the second example of the related art described above, the rotatable tray is set to be rotatable during recording or reproduction of an information signal in one recording and reproducing portion, and thus it is possible to set other disk-like recording media in the other recording and reproducing portions during recording or reproduction. Therefore, it is possible to perform recording or reproduction onto or from the different disk-like recording media without interruption. However, an interval between the rotatable tray and the recording and reproducing portion is fixed and further the interval is set to be relatively large. As a result, the access time to a first disk is long and therefore the improvement in the access time is not sufficiently achieved.